Dubai: Remember the tricky question from UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi about an iPad floating aboard the International Space Station (ISS)?
Well, the Sultan of Space on Thursday returned to social media to give his answer to the question that he had posted on Monday.
Al Neyadi had challenged “smart people” to answer why the iPad had made an asymmetric movement when it was rotated vertically.
The Najmonaut (Arab astronaut) on the longest Arab space mission stated on his Thursday’s post: “Thank you to everyone who responded to my last question. Your insightful responses always give me confidence in the abundance of creative and passionate minds for science in our Arab world. Here is my answer to the physics question.”
Speaking again in Arabic, he said in the video that many people had answered his question. The video had in fact gone viral.
“Many of you answered the question and indeed it is the simple axis theorem,” he said.
“Anything that rotates whether on Earth or in space, has several axes. A circle has no specific axis, so its rotation is equal in all directions.”
“To put it simply, if there is a body like this rectangular one and it is rotated this way, it means it rotates in the short axis or the first axis,” he said rotating the iPad sideways.
“If it is rotated in this way, it rotates on the long axis,” he said flipping the iPad vertically.
“But if it is rotated in this way, it rotates on the middle axis, causing an imbalance in the movement…It is located between the long and the short axis so the result is a misalignment,” he explained as the iPad is rotated vertically.
Plumbing duties
Meanwhile, Al Neyadi did plumbing duties on the ISS, according to an update from NASA.
As the Expedition 68 members including SpaceX Crew-6 awaited the docking of a cargo spacecraft to the ISS, they kept busy completing lab work, ultrasounds, and plumbing duties, NASA said in a blog.
Flight engineer Al Neyadi was tasked with removing and replacing a toilet along with flight engineer Frank Rubio, NASA said.
“Al Neyadi also repaired damages to paint on a stall wall,” it added.
